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3 thoughts on “Is It Time to Call It Quits?”

Hi Jane!
I actually prefer Theordore Sturgeon’s advice: 90% of everything is crap. Or Hemingway’s quote running on my website: For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.
By the time I finish a short story or a novel, I generally like it. The real test is when I go back a few years later and I like it even more (of course asking myself, "Gee, who’s the guy that wrote this great stuff?"). This happened to me recently when I reread the Prologue to Soldiers of God. Yeah, I know it violates the agent’s rule of not writing a prologue, but in this case it was an exciting, concise short story separated by a large gap in time from the rest of the novel.
The creative artist and the inner critic must duke it out until the writer has that final product ready…no doubt about it.
Take care.
r/Steve

I had two books like this. It took years to get the first one right and every time I picked it up to revise, I thought ‘if this time doesn’t work, it goes away forever.’ The thing is, the story wouldn’t let me go.
The second one is still under revision and I’m putting it on my blog to gather feedback. I’m glad I persevered (4 full rewrites) because I think I’ve finally figured out how to get it right.